She finds as many musings as parting words. "Feeling better," one correspondent has written. "Thanks to all who remembered me."

In the early days of Internet communication, social scientists warned that it might replace face-to-face contact and that we'd all be worse off. They're now rethinking that. Susannah Stern, assistant professor of communication at Boston College, has researched the phenomenon extensively among young people. "I haven't seen one study that [IMs and AMs] have done anything but enhance social relationships," she says.

Say Tanguay takes off for Nevada and leaves an away message saying where he's going. Upon return, he phones a friend. "So, how was Las Vegas?" his friend begins their conversation. No catch-up is required.

Or say Lalangas returns from the gym at 9 p.m. and would like to party but has no plans. With a couple of clicks on her mouse she discovers that two of her friends are going to Club Daedalus later and another is probably already there. Out she scoots, after posting her own plans, of course.

Away messaging is the perfect tool for a generation that, in psychologist Bradford Brown's view, is "very free-flowing and flexible in plans to go places and do things."

"Two generations ago, when we were young, you had to have things laid out by Tuesday or you were in trouble," the University of Wisconsin professor says. With this generation, "nothing is clear-cut until an hour or two before. It's easy to miss where to go." Away messaging "lets people know 'I'll be back in this period of time.' It's a way of saying, 'Don't leave me out, I'll get there.' "

It's also becoming an art form, a way of crafting an image of how you would like the world -- or at least the 150 people on your buddy list -- to think of you. If your away message says you're out with friends, you're telling people you have a social life. If you say you're making dinner, as Tanguay did recently, you're saying that, at the moment, you don't. "People know I'm here and not really doing anything," he says.

Maybe you've broken up with your boyfriend or girlfriend and want to signal that life goes on just fine, thank you very much. So you post something like, "Irish girls are fantastic" or "Emotional detachment is the key to the game."

"If you read something an 'ex' has up, it can hurt," Lalangas says. "They want you to see it, and everyone knows. It's a community 'dis.' "

A smile flits across her face. "I've done it, and it's been done to me."